Atlas landfill name dumped for Welland Vista Park

At 220 metres above sea level and 40 metres above the surrounding landscape, the 14-hectare Atlas Landfill site has a commanding view of the city, nearby Welland Canal and Welland River and Niagara Falls.

As it nears the end of its life, what it becomes next will be up to the community, an agent of Dillion Consulting told Welland councillors during their Tuesday night committee meeting.

“There needs to be an end-of-use plan. There could be no public access … or it could be a positive landmark. It should be the latter,” said Eha Naylor.

Walker Industries, which operates the landfill, is expected to wrap up operations at the site by early- to mid-2019.

“We’ve stopped calling it Atlas Landfill … it’s Welland Vista Park,” said Naylor.
She said the site can become a magnificent place in the community, clean and safe with fantastic trails and recreation opportunities.

Both Naylor and James O’Neill, Welland’s facilities manager, said there has already been extensive public consultation on to what to do with the site.

O’Neill said Niagara College, through its environmental management assessment program, came on board to work with Dillion and develop a concept plan.

Dillon, said Naylor, came up with some ideas and developed a survey. From that survey, Niagara College helped to develop a very extensive and complete consultation program.

Public and face-to-face meetings and social media were used to gather responses from the community and, Naylor said, 836 surveys were analyzed and logged.

“It was very robust and there were insightful results,” she said. “It was a broad community consultation that exceeded what we had discussed with the city.”

The results were consistent across the board and showed preferred elements for a park at the landfill off of Woodlawn Road, Naylor added.

She said some of the features of the new park could include walking paths, natural gardens and meadows, interpretive nature trails connecting to other trails in the area, parking areas, shaded areas and restrooms.

Key principles would be respecting the natural environment, because of the site’s proximity to the Welland River, making the area reflect passive recreation activities, as accessible as possible and open to use in all seasons.

“We’d look to provide ecological restoration opportunities and promote low-impact design solutions. We would use as light a touch as possible.”

Niagara College, Naylor said, would use the site for environmental education and as an outdoor classroom.

Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio said he appreciated the hard work the college students and Dillion Consulting put into the concept plan.

“I don’t want to take away from this, but were there other considerations, something with a theme park type of feel. Are we locked into this (the concept plan) or can we do both?” Chiocchio asked.

Naylor said it was the first time the idea of a theme park had been raised for the site.

“It would be a challenge to put one here because of the steep sides and moving people up there. There are some technical limitations,” she said, adding the foundation of the site needs to settle.

Servicing the top of the site would also be quite a challenge and very expensive.

“Passive use makes more sense.”

Ward 2 Coun. David McLeod said he, too, liked the concept plan and added it was very respectful of the area.

He asked if there is potential to make things a bit more exciting though.

“Could there be a zip-line area or maybe wall or cliff climbing?” he asked.

Naylor said what needs to happen first is to allow the site to settle down, stabilize and grow.

“There isn’t a reason why we couldn’t later have an adventure side, but it may take a few years to get there,” she said.

Naylor said the community made it clear it wants a quiet, passive space and that the site should be used and its appeal understood first.

O’Neill said Walker Industries has offered to do some of the shaping on top of the landfill before it leaves the site.
“If council decides this is the direction it wants to take, we can supply Walker with a general plan so when they are on top of the hill, they can get things into shape so when we come in, a lot of the work will have been done.”

O’Neill said it would be costly to have the company come back after it left the site to do the shaping work.